What is context?

General meaning

The word context comes from the Latin contexere, meaning “to weave together.”
Context refers to the broader background in which events, words, or behaviors gain their meaning.
The same sentence can be understood in completely different ways depending on who says it, when, and under what circumstances.

Neuropsychological meaning

Our brains do not work like cameras that neutrally record reality.
They function as predictors: they use context to interpret incoming stimuli and assign meaning.
According to Karl Friston (The Free Energy Principle, 2010), the brain is constantly working to minimize the gap between expectation and perception.

Example 1: the cola can

A Coke can can be shown in grayscale, and yet almost everyone still experiences it as red.
The brain automatically fills in missing information using context and memory.
What we “see” is therefore partly perception, partly prediction.

Example 2: The Monkey Business Illusion

Another famous experiment by Daniel Simons shows that context also directs our attention.
Viewers are asked to count how many times a ball is passed, and as a result they often fail to notice a person in a gorilla suit walking through the scene.
Attention is therefore entirely shaped by the context of the task.

See: The Monkey Business Illusion (YouTube).

Context over time

Context is not only what is happening around us right now.
It also includes:

• the past – memories, previous experiences
• the present – the concrete situation
• the future – expectations, habits, predictions

By continuously combining these three time dimensions, our brains create a useful and often efficient framework for understanding reality and acting quickly.

The importance of context

Without context, communication cannot exist.
A word or gesture only gains meaning within a whole of situations, signals, and expectations.
Context makes our interpretations richer and faster, but also more complex at the same time.

Further

For the variation in how people deal with context, see The spectrum of context sensitivity.
For the pitfall of assuming that others think the way we do, see The mirror-thinking effect.